I told them the story of a doctor of early Christian times who was unjustly
imprisoned by the emperor. After some weeks his family were allowed to see him,
and at first they wept. His clothes were rags, his nourishment a slice of bread
with a cup of water every day. His wife wondered and asked, "How is it you look
so well? You have the air of one who has just come from a wedding!" The doctor
smilingly replied that he found a remedy for all troubles, and his family asked
him what it was.
The doctor told them, "I have discovered a tea which is good against all
suffering and sorrow. It contains seven herbs, and I shall number them for you.
"The first herb is called contentedness: be satisfied with what you have. I may
shiver in my rags as I gnaw on a crust, but how much worse off I should be if
the emperor had thrown me naked into a dungeon with nothing at all to eat!
"The second herb is common sense. Whether I rejoice or worry, I shall still be
in prison, so why repine? "The third is remembrance of past sins: count them,
and on the supposition that every sin deserves a day in prison, reckon how many
lives you would spend behind bars-you have been let off lightly!
"The fourth is the thought of the sorrows which Christ bore gladly for us. If
the only man who ever could choose his fate on earth chose pain, what great
value He must have seen in it! So we observe that, borne with serenity and joy,
suffering redeems.
"The fifth herb is the knowledge that suffering has been given to us by God as
from a father, not to harm us, but to cleanse and sanctify us. The suffering
through which we pass has the purpose purifying us, and preparing us for heaven.
"The sixth is the knowledge that no suffering can harm a Christian life. If the
pleasures of the flesh are all, then pain and prison bring an end to a man's aim
in living; but if the core of life is truth that is something which no prison
cell can change. In prison or out of it two and two make four. Prison cannot
stop me from loving: iron bars cannot exclude faith. If these ideals make up my
life. I can be serene anywhere.
`The last herb in the recipe is hope. The wheel of life may put the emperor's
physician in prison, but it goes on turning. It may put me back into the palace,
and even put me on the throne."
Wurmbrand, Richard. In God's Underground. Living Sacrifice Book Company:
Bartlesville, 1993, p. 200-201. Available from The Voice of the Martyrs at
www.persecution.com.
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